Certain things cannot be re-stated too often -
1. Megrahi was found guilty by a Scottish Court.
2. Megrahi was released under Scottish Law on compassionate grounds only, in the belief that the verdict was sound and that he was guilty.
3. No commercial considerations influenced the Scottish Government: there were no negotiations over his release with the UK government: Scotland was not influenced by the UK Government of Tony Blair or Gordon Brown.
These are the only crystal clear facts in the whole Megrahi/Libya affair. The behaviour of the last UK Labour government was deceitful and contemptible throughout its term in office, influenced by expediency and commercial considerations.
The hypocritical behaviour of the Scottish Labour group in the Scottish Parliament has been beneath contempt, characterised by utter hypocrisy and political posturing.
The behaviour of the UK Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition government has been no less hypocritical and expedient. As cynical arms dealers to Middle Eastern dictatorships and suppliers of instrument of repression and death to be used against to their people by dictators, Cameron's government - driven into action by the Wikileaks revelations - has been motivated by a wish to secure short term political advantage against the Labour Opposition, and a parallel wish to smear the Scottish Nationalist government with lies about their role in the Megrahi Affair.
In this shameful politicking, they have been aided by the Cabinet Secretary to both the previous and the current UK governments, Sir Gus O'Donnell.
The latest allegation by a Libyan politician, that Gadaffi ordered the Lockerbie bombing, which to date is not supported by any facts, and may well be driven by a simple wish to gain favour in the US and UK when his political career is threatened, comes as no surprise to the Scottish Government, who believed that anyway throughout, based on the Scottish Court's guilty verdict.
However, it is not what those who believe Megrahi is innocent wanted to hear, and they are likely to retain their belief that he was either innocent, or did not act alone.
The majority of British newspapers seized on the so far unsupported allegation of Gadaffi's involvement with glee, and published it as a fact on their front pages, motivated by God knows what agenda, since their thinking has been marked by a lack of clarity and a total disregard for the facts so far.
One can only assume that the ConLib supporting press hope it will damage UK Labour, the Labour Press hope it will damage Scotland, and both of them think it will somehow protect the rotten, failing political entity known as the United Kingdom.
(Some prominent Scottish bloggers, who ought to know better, have also accepted the Libyan politician's unsupported allegation at face value.)
Whatever the outcome, the central clarity and human compassion of the Scottish Government's decision to release Megrahi on compassionate grounds, and on that alone, will remain unaffected - the only clear, principled decision in the whole sorry affair.
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Hi Peter,
ReplyDeleteI doubt (like who really killed JFK) if we will ever know for sure to what wxtent al Megrahi really was guilty. It is certainly unlikely if he was involved that he operated solely on his own.
Both events have the CIA's fingerprints all over them.
It is necessary in the light of the media's bias, however to keep repeating that the Scottish Government acted honourably throughout in the action of his release on compassionate grounds and that the Unionist politicians acted grossly hypocritically.
There is also the question of what sort of man Mustafa Abdel-Jalil is and how reliable any testimony he may make in the matter might be. Can anything a man responsible for being part of the Libyan tyranny say be taken seriously, or is he just trying to curry favour with the West? - hoping for a lighter sentence perhaps!
Regards,
Thanks, Rab
ReplyDeleteI agree that there are many questions surrounding Megrahi's conviction. But until there is hard evidence, the pristine clarity of Kenny MacAskill's decision is what we have. And that decision is unaffected if Megrahi was innocent, or did not act alone.
I believe the release decision was one the most humane decisions that a Western Justice system has ever made, and that it will stand as such in history.
It seems likely that Megrahi may be murdered or 'disappeared' by Gadaffi in his last desperate wekks or months.